Author: GT

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo, Japan February 3, 2025. Kim Kyung-hoon | ReutersOpenAI has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Neptune, a startup that builds monitoring and de-bugging tools that artificial intelligence companies use as they train models. Neptune and OpenAI have collaborated on a metrics dashboard to help teams that are building foundation models. The companies will work “even more closely together” because of the acquisition, Neptune CEO Piotr Niedźwiedź said in a blog. The startup will wind down its external services in the coming months, Niedźwiedź said. The…

Nuclear startup Antares said Tuesday it has raised $96 million in Series B funding as it pursues its small modular reactor design. The round, which was led by Shine Capital with participation from Alt Capital, Caffeinated, FiftyThree Stations, Industrious, and others, consists of $71 million in equity and $25 million in debt. Antares says it is targeting commercial, defense, and space-based applications with its R1 microreactor, which will produce between 100 kilowatts and 1 megawatt of electricity. The design uses TRISO fuel, which in Antares case is spheres of carbon- and ceramic-coated uranium embedded in graphite. The startup is one…

In the future, tiny flying robots could be deployed to aid in the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake. Like real insects, these robots could flit through tight spaces larger robots can’t reach, while simultaneously dodging stationary obstacles and pieces of falling rubble.So far, aerial microrobots have only been able to fly slowly along smooth trajectories, far from the swift, agile flight of real insects — until now.MIT researchers have demonstrated aerial microrobots that can fly with speed and agility that is comparable to their biological counterparts. A collaborative team designed a new AI-based controller…

Tonight, at Playground Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who are building things you don’t understand yet will explain what’s coming. This is the final StrictlyVC event of 2025, and truly, the lineup is ridiculous. Image Credits:Aaron V Barrera Photography The series has traveled around the globe under the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, D.C.; we talked to Greece’s prime minister in Athens; and Kirsten Green hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. The concept is always the same, though: bring together people who are working on genuinely important developments in a…

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile has passed a bill outlawing the use of mobile phones and other smart devices during classes at elementary and middle schools.The new law will take effect next year, making Chile the latest country to restrict smartphone use among young students to reduce its harmful effects and curb classroom distractions. Other nations with various levels of restrictions on smartphone use at schools include France, Brazil, Hungary, the Netherlands and China.“We are advancing a cultural change for children and adolescents who today, more than ever, need to see each other’s faces again, socialize during recess, and regain…

Amazon Web Services on Tuesday announced three new AI agents it calls “frontier agents,” including one designed to learn how you like to work and then operate on its own for days. Each of these agents handle different tasks such as writing code, security processes like code reviews, and automating DevOps tasks such as preventing incidents when pushing new code live. Preview versions of the agents are available now. Perhaps the biggest and most interesting claim by AWS is its promise that the frontier agent called “Kiro autonomous agent” can work on its own for days at a time. Kiro…

OpenAI will award $40.5 million to more than 200 nonprofits before the end of the year, following an open call for applications in September.This is the first wave of donations since the maker of ChatGPT rebranded its nonprofit as the OpenAI Foundation in October. The company has committed $25 billion to helping fund health research and what it calls AI resilience or ways to minimize the risks of these technologies. It hasn’t said how quickly it will grant out those funds. OpenAI promised to grant out $50 million in July in response to the recommendations of an advisory commission they…

Homes near a data center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, on Friday, July 25, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesData centers that haven’t been built yet are driving up electricity prices and could leave consumers on the hook for expensive power infrastructure if demand projections are wrong.The race to build facilities that provide artificial intelligence has fueled a boom in data centers that train and run large language models, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, upending a utility industry that grew used to 20 years of no increase in electricity demand. But now, some investors and energy market analysts are…

As OpenAI goes into “Code Red” over competitive pressures, Google announced it has begun testing a new feature that merges its AI Overviews with AI Mode in Search. That means that users who are provided with the now common AI-generated snapshot of key information on a topic or question above their search results can choose to go deeper by asking follow-up questions in a conversational interface. Google calls this conversational feature AI Mode. It launched to U.S. users this May, and to global users this August, allowing for back-and-forth chats with Google’s Gemini AI, in an experience similar to ChatGPT.…

Prediction market Kalshi, which allows people to bet on future events, announced on Tuesday that it raised a $1 billion funding round at an $11 billion valuation, confirming TechCrunch’s scoop from last month. The round was led by returning investor Paradigm, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Capital G, and other existing backers. The latest funding comes less than two months after Kalshi announced that it raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation. Although the trading platform surged in popularity last year when people used it to predict the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, a large…